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About the Selkirk Rex
Selkirk Rex owners are the luckiest people in the world!
They have the privilege of living with and loving a live “teddy
bear”! Visually, the Selkirks are irresistible.
One look into their round, expressive eyes and one touch of their soft,
plush fur and you know you have to have one!
They have wonderful, loving, yet playful personalities.
The foundation cat for the Selkirk Rex was a short-haired, curly-coated, dilute
calico female born to a litter of domestic cats in 1987.
Her mom was a straight-haired cat and her siblings all had straight-hair.
No other curly cats were found in the area, leading geneticians to believe that
she was the locus of a new mutant gene. This
special, unique kitten was given to a long-time Persian breeder, Jeri Newman.
She named her new baby, Miss DePesto because of her very curious and
sometimes “pesty” behavior. Jeri
described Miss DePesto as having curly whiskers, ears full of “brillo” and a
body that looked like it had just had a bodywave!
Very unique indeed.
Ms. Newman bred Miss DePesto to her Champion black male Persian.
On July 4, 1988, a litter of 6 healthy kittens was born, 3 of which were
curly, 3 of which were straight. These
kittens proved that the gene for the curly coat was dominant since it appeared
in the first generation when bred back to a cat that could not be carrying a
curly coated gene. This also proved
that the short-haired Pest carried the longhair gene.
Since that first litter, caring breeders have expanded the genepool by breeding
their Selkirks to allowable outcrosses (Persians, British Shorthairs and Exotic
Shorthairs).
The Selkirk Rex are medium to large cats with heavy boning. The females are much
smaller than the males. Their
head-type is similar to that of a British Shorthair but with more roundness.
The eyes are large, round and wide set.
The body is muscular and rectangular, with the hindquarters slightly
elevated.
The Selkirk Rex coat is soft, plushy, full and stands out from the body.
Their curls are random, unstructured, and arranged in loose, individual
curls. They have curly whiskers on
their chubby whisker pads. Too cute! |